


Park Chanyeol, Twink for Justice

by occultclysms



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cruise Ship, Crime Fighting, Ghosts, Kissing, M/M, Mystery, References to Drugs, Vomiting, literally half of this fic is chanyeol kissing boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27257986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/occultclysms/pseuds/occultclysms
Summary: Chanyeol finally lets his best friend, Baekhyun convince him to go on a vacation cruise for five days. There's a catch though, every night someone disappears from the cruise and it's up to Chanyeol to catch who's throwing all the hot guys off the ship.
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Park Chanyeol, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Park Chanyeol, Kim Jongin | Kai/Park Chanyeol/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay, Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Park Chanyeol, Park Chanyeol/Everyone
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18
Collections: EXO MONSTERFEST 2020





	Park Chanyeol, Twink for Justice

**Author's Note:**

> okay so, i'm back to doing notes... hello readers of monster fest! this is my first time participating in this fest, but i've been reading fics from it since round 2 and am glad to have finally joined this round. 
> 
> this is essentially a chanyeol harem fic which wasn't my intention when this started out but that's what it became, so thank you prompter for this prompt as i clearly just ran with it
> 
> prompt O.223

**Day 1**

“Thank you again for doing this,” Chanyeol gushes, walking up the gangway with Baekhyun.

“Anything for a friend,” Baekhyun says, waving Chanyeol off. “You need a break from your job, I’m sure. Who doesn’t at this point?”

“You raise a good point, but still,” Chanyeol replies. “It can’t have been easy to get me such a good room on such short notice?”

“I’m the captain of the ship, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun reassures as they walk into the entry room of the cruise ship. The room is huge, wide open with a massive chandelier in the center. Chanyeol stares open-mouthed at everything. “Sure, I had to pull a few strings, but it’s really not a big deal at all.”

“This place is crazy beautiful. I’m no architect, but wow this is gorgeous.” Baekhyun has to grab Chanyeol’s arm to escort him away from the doorway and over to the elevators.

“This is just the entry room, there’s so much more.”

“The mouse has too much money,” Chanyeol mumbles, eyes scanning all over the space. Baekhyun laughs and presses the button for the elevator.

“Capitalism is annoying when you’re not at the successful end of it,” Baekhyun comments.

“I mean sure, but that doesn’t mean the people at the top should be heartless and extort the people at the bottom. At least the mouse pays you well, I have some friends that work in journalism and they were talking about this story about cruise lines. Interesting stuff really,” Chanyeol rambles.

“Was it really that bad?” Baekhyun asks, surprised. “I haven’t run into any issues here, but then again, tons of people work on this ship and I simply don’t have the time to learn all of their names.” The elevator doors ding and they walk inside. The glass on the outside of the elevator allows for them to look out over the entry area, but they also see their reflection in the glass. Chanyeol is struck by how different they look; he’s only in cargo shorts and a tee shirt, while Baekhyun is dressed in his white captain's suit and hat.

“I didn’t read the full article, and Disney wasn’t specifically named, but there were broad criticisms of the industry as a whole, which is valid,” Chanyeol says.

“Do you agree with their criticisms?” Baekhyun asks, and while his tone doesn’t reveal anything outright, Chanyeol knows he’s a little bit offended as he really enjoys his job and does it to the best of his ability.

“Every industry has the ability and can improve even if individuals are already doing their jobs to the best of their ability,” Chanyeol replies.

“So, if someone starts criticizing your job and calling you a bastard, what would you say?”

“I would say that while I, as an individual, am not a bastard, the general opinion that those in my profession are is not unfounded. But I also like my job, and I do it to the highest standard that I can,” Chanyeol says, choosing his words carefully. Baekhyun bites the inside of his cheek and looks straight ahead.

“Yeah, I suppose that’s fair.” The two of them are silent for the rest of the elevator ride up. Chanyeol can tell he stepped on Baekhyun’s toes a bit, which is something he probably shouldn’t do again because Baekhyun is the one allowing him on this ship in the first place.

The elevator doors ding and Baekhyun escorts Chanyeol out and down the hall. Baekhyun’s shoes click against the floor in a perfect rhythm while Chanyeol’s tennis shoes make no noise at all which just goes to show that one of them is the professional here. Chanyeol knows nothing about the sea as his job has him only working on land. They stop at the end of the hallway and Chanyeol takes a quick glance around. This is the top floor of the ship and the captain’s quarters must be what they just walked by. There’s only around six rooms in total. Three on this side and three on the other side.

“This is your room,” Baekhyun says, pulling a room key out of his breast pocket. Chanyeol takes it from him and unlocks his door.

“Thank you,” Chanyeol replies. He steps into his room, eyes immediately going to the towel alligator on the bed. “This is so cool. I will have to personally thank my maid because this might be my new favorite thing.” Chanyeol let's go of his bag and crouches over by the bed.

“Our maids don’t do that,” Baekhyun mumbles and Chanyeol looks over at Baekhyun.

“Maybe one of them just spent some time on YouTube to learn some new animals because this is so badass,” Chanyeol explains. It’s pretty plausible to him because what else would you do on a ship like this as a maid? If you’re working then you probably don’t want to hang out where you were just working, so naturally, towel animals for relaxation is the only answer.

“Well, I will leave you with your towel alligator,” Baekhyun says awkwardly and Chanyeol waves him off. Baekhyun has no taste clearly. He’s been desensitized to the glories of towel animals clearly. But Chanyeol can’t just sit here and admire his towel alligator all night. He has plans which require him dressing in something nicer than a tee shirt and jeans.

Chanyeol strips off his clothes and puts his suitcase on the little stand thing he never learned the name of. The plan for tonight involves just scoping things out and adjusting to the look of the ship, but that may require going to some places he’s not authorized, so he must put on his best disguise and become a himbo.

Just to really sell the whole look, Chanyeol bleached his hair white and got a haircut as science says people assume blonds are dumber. On with the cropped neon yellow tee and skin tight rainbow patterned jeans. Seriously, who designed these? But whatever they give the illusion that Chanyeol has some ass, and that’s all that really matters.

There’s a matching jacket that goes with the pants, but Chanyeol wants to put on his makeup and accessories first. Chanyeol grabs his little makeup bag and strides into the bathroom. He’s normally not one for makeup, but just a little will make him look more attractive and up his himbo-ness. First a little mascara so his eyelashes pop, and then take some of the tinted chapstick that will plump out his lips just a tinge.

Once he’s ready, Chanyeol makes sure that all of his stuff is hidden away, gives the towel alligator a pat on the head and is on his way. He’s walking down the hallway towards the elevators when he sees someone loitering outside of the captain’s quarters. This area is really only supposed to be for special guests or something according to Baekhyun’s message earlier. This guy isn’t really giving Chanyeol special guest vibes but it could easily be nothing.

“Hey,” Chanyeol calls, hoping to get the guy’s attention, but he seems to disappear into thin air when Chanyeol takes another step closer. Okay, so Chanyeol is starting to see things, that’s just great. All he wants to do is go downstairs and get something to drink.

Chanyeol shakes off his nerves and walks into the elevator and presses the ground floor. He has no clue where anything is, but the ground floor is bound to have either a bar or someone to tell him where to find the bar. Thankfully, he doesn’t need to talk to anyone as he spots one right across the way and makes a beeline there, trying not to attract too much attention to himself.

Several parents were giving him slightly disapproving looks, but nothing new there. Going out in public in street clothes always gets a few nasty looks, so the adults here should just be grateful that he’s not half naked and covered in glitter. But Chanyeol would never say that, so he just slinks into the bar and takes a seat at the counter, glancing around until the bartender walks over.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asks and Chanyeol strips any worry from his expression. He tucks his arms into his side and bites his lip.

“I’m not sure,” Chanyeol replies. “I’m just looking for something that will give me a good time y’know.” The bartender doesn’t react which means he’s probably straight and Chanyeol’s charms won’t work on him which is annoying, but it’s fine. This is only night one and one place to visit.

“How about some straight vodka then?” the bar tender offers. “Can’t go wrong with that. At least you seem like you could handle it.” Chanyeol scoffs. Yeah, he doesn’t actually mix that well with alcohol, but this persona is asking this of him, so for now, he will enjoy vodka.

That’s easier said than done when Chanyeol is presented with a shot. It’s so small. That really should make it much less threatening, but it does quite the opposite because that means it's going to burn like hell.

But Chanyeol doesn’t let these feelings rise to the surface. He looks at the bartender, unimpressed, like this is nothing to him. Trying to internalize that as much as he can, Chanyeol swallows back the vodka without wincing. It burns like hell and part of Chanyeol wants to cry from the pain, but he doesn’t let it show at all.

“I’ve tasted stronger,” Chanyeol comments, which draws the attention of a nearby stranger. He’s handsome and moves over a stool so he’s next to Chanyeol.

“You like to drink?” he asks and Chanyeol gives him his best attempt at bedroom eyes before replying.

“Yeah, I do,” Chanyeol replies, toying with the collar of his shirt, which draws the attention of the stranger to the little bit of exposed collarbone.

“I’m Sehun,” the stranger introduces and Chanyeol makes a note of his name.

“I’m Chanyeol.” There’s no need in hiding his first name just in case they manage to bump into Baekhyun in the off chance.

“So what brings you to somewhere like this?” Sehun asks. “It’s a bit of a more family centered cruise and you don’t look family friendly.” Chanyeol won’t lie and say that he’s not heating up a bit.

“I’m really not, just a friend of a crewmate who thinks I really needed a vacation,” Chanyeol explains. That’s true, but he’s underselling it a bit.

“That’s quite sweet of them. Since you don’t get out much, would you like me to show you around a bit?” Sehun offers and Chanyeol smiles. Perfect. 

“Yeah, that would be really sweet of you,” Chanyeol replies. They both stand and walk out of the bar, Sehun slipping his hands into his pockets. “So I take it you’re here a lot?”

“You could say that,” Sehun mumbles. “I just know how to relax, really.” He smiles to try and brush Chanyeol off which is a little weird in Chanyeol’s opinion. “Anyways, have you ever been on a cruise before?”

“Never. The closest thing is when I was a little kid, I got dragged out to fishing trips with my dad and uncle but they were not nearly this nice and it smelled like y’know… dead fish,” Chanyeol says. It’s completely truthful in the hopes that opening up a bit will inspire the same in Sehun. Even though it's entirely possible that Sehun doesn’t know a single thing, it’s okay as Chanyeol will at least have some fun with him.

“That sounds awful.” Sehun laughs and guides them back over to the elevators. “Then I think the best place for us to start is the deck. There shouldn’t be too many people out since it’s past ten, but it’s cool anyway.”

“Great idea.” Chanyeol loves the ocean which is part of why he’s even here. He does his job to the highest level which he can, but it’s been wearing on him morally for a bit, so this is sort of the make or break for him. 

Chanyeol leans against the back wall of the elevator and lets his eyes rake over Sehun obviously. There’s no point in being subtle with him when he’s clearly interested in him.

“See something you like?” Sehun asks, teasing.

“Damn right I do,” Chanyeol mumbles, voice still loud enough for Sehun to hear him. His eyebrow cocks upwards and his hands come out of his pockets to rest at his sides. 

Sehun opens his mouth to say something, but the doors chime three floors too early and one of the staff with a small, blue name tag labeled Jongin walks in. Chanyeol only takes note because Sehun and him share a look which changes the entire energy in the elevator. Sehun moves closer to Chanyeol, giving Jongin a wide berth. No one says anything while they wait for the elevator doors to close. Chanyeol tries to catch a better look at the text under Jongin’s name of what his job title is.

The look may have been nothing, but it’s good to know at least where Chanyeol could find him if Sehun starts doing things that don’t add up. Chanyeol moves to rest his head on Sehun’s shoulder which surprises Sehun based on the moment of freezing, but it’s just enough for Chanyeol to make out the word ‘handler’ on Jongin’s name tag. He has no idea what it means, but he can always ask Baekhyun tomorrow night when they have dinner together.

When the doors ping open, Sehun brings an arm around Chanyeol’s waist and guides him out of the door and Chanyeol doesn’t look back. The cool air is refreshing and makes the tips of Chanyeol’s ear turn pink.

“It’s really nice out,” Chanyeol says. Sehun was right, there’s hardly anyone around, only a few cleaning people which is a bit surprising, but everyone must’ve had a long first day to even get here.

“Yeah, it’s so peaceful.” The two of them are standing right near the rail, cold metal pressing into Chanyeol’s waist. They stay like that for a moment, just watching the waves under dim lights, holding each other close.

All of a sudden, there’s a crash behind them. Chanyeol spins around, separating himself from Sehun. There’s one of the cleaning guys on the ground, looking confused with a toppled cart next to him.

“Do you need a hand?” Chanyeol calls, crossing the twenty feet over and bending down.

“Yeah, thanks.” His name tag has the name Minseok on it and a job title of janitor which fits at least. Chanyeol pulls Minseok up and then moves to help him pick up his cart.

“Are you clumsy or something?” Chanyeol asks, hoping to make light conversation for a brief moment.

“Not at all,” Minseok replies. “I was going over to clean the rails off and then I just fell over which I know how it sounds, but I promise I’m sober.” Chanyeol chuckles.

“I’m not your boss, so I wouldn’t tell anyone if you were.” Chanyeol gives Minseok an over exaggerated wink and he laughs. 

“Fair point, but I’m still a janitor and most people don’t really care about me,” Minseok points out. “But I’m used to it.” They both reach for the same paper towels which had fallen out of the cart and their hands touch, Chanyeol's cold hands meeting Minseok’s warm ones.

“Chanyeol,” Sehun says, causing Chanyeol to revoke his hand and tilt his head up towards him. “I’m really sorry, but I really have to go. I’ll see you around though.” And then Sehun is off. Chanyeol frowns because while Sehun’s words seemed sincere, the look in his eyes wasn’t apologetic— it was worried. The two don’t match at all.

“Your date ditching you?” Minseok asks, looking a tinge awkward and pink.

“Wasn’t a date,” Chanyeol quips. “I found him at the bar and he offered to show me around some, but whatever, his loss I suppose.” Minseok puts the last item on the cart and the two of them stand, Chanyeol brushing off his clothes from habit.

“I don’t suppose you have any interest in sneaking around, do you?” Minseok asks and Chanyeol raises a brow.

“And here I thought my night was over already,” Chanyeol says. “What sort of fun thing did you have in mind?”

“Most things on the ship close down around ten, but some close as early as eight, so there aren’t even any staff in certain places right now,” Minseok explains, a suggestive glint shining in his eyes. Making out with a staff member wasn’t on Chanyeol’s agenda for tonight, or even for this entire cruise, but he’s certainly not opposed. 

“Where did you have in mind?” Chanyeol asks, biting his lip, excitement coiling in his stomach. It's been far too long since he’s even held hands with a guy. Feeling brave, Chanyeol does just that and Minseok smiles at him.

“You’re cute, so how about we head over to one of the empty clubhouse areas?” Minseok suggests and Chanyeol eagerly nods. Sneaking around is so much fun, especially considering Chanyeol won’t really get in trouble. He’s with another staff and is friends with the captain— while that’s not super moral, what’s really the harm in two people making out in an empty space?

“Great, I have no idea how to get there though and what about your cart?” Chanyeol will sneak around, but he still wants to think this through.

“We take it with us and that way no one will ask any questions.” Oh, Chanyeol likes the way Minseok thinks. Without letting go of Chanyeol’s hand, Minseok starts to push the cart back towards the elevator with Chanyeol in tow.

“So how do you end up working somewhere like this?” Chanyeol asks. Everyone finds their job through one reason or another, even if it’s not through the reason of love for the profession.

“I’m a seasonal worker as I’m in college,” Minseok explains. “I’m trying to wrap up getting my masters degree and even though I’m at sea here, I can do one or two classes online while I’m working, so it works out. I barely work during the year which is a huge relief because wow, getting a masters degree is difficult.”

“What are you getting your masters in?” And he values education! He’s perfect.

“Bioengineering.” 

“That sounds fascinating,” Chanyeol says as they approach the elevator doors. Sehun is completely gone, which is honestly for the best, but Chanyeol still takes notice of it.

“It’s really just stuff I’m passionate about,” Minseok brushes off, looking a bit shy. He presses the up button and the elevator dings almost immediately.

“What floor are we going to?”

“Just up one.” Chanyeol nods, waiting until the elevator doors to close before he makes his move on Minseok. His hand that isn’t holding Minseok’s moves up Minseok’s chest and lands on his shoulder, drawing his eyes up to Chanyeol.

“I can’t wait, oops.” Chanyeol drops his lips to Minseok’s forehead then his cheek and finally to his mouth. For a fleeting three seconds they kiss, Minseok half smiling into it until the doors ping open.

“I didn’t peg you to be so eager,” Minseok comments, pushing the cart out and turning to the right. There’s a huge sign that says ‘Vibe’ in purple wavy lettering which peaks Chanyeol’s interest considerably. 

“I’m a very surprising person,” Chanyeol replies. Sure enough Minseok stops in front of the glass doors of Vibe, blue, purple, and pink lights illuminating the inside showing off a semi circle of couches with a pit of sorts in the middle with bean bags littered across the middle. The lock clicks open and the two of them walk in, letting go of each other's hands.

Chanyeol immediately makes a beeline for the bean bags and carefully takes the three stairs to reach them safely. He plops down on one with a laugh and flips himself so he’s on his back, legs slightly spread and looking towards Minseok who takes a few steps over to Chanyeol, popping the top two buttons on his shirt.

“I see you’ve already made yourself quite comfortable,” Minseok teases and Chanyeol whines.

“Just come over here, I want to kiss you stupid,” Chanyeol replies, going so far as to reach out and make grabby hands at Minseok who just laughs.

“Yeah yeah.” He steps down the stairs and crosses the floor, easing himself into Chanyeol’s lap who latches onto Minseok’s waist, holding him close.

“Do you know how gorgeous you are?” Chanyeol asks, Minseok’s mouth hovering over his for a brief moment.

“I do, actually,” Minseok whispers before connecting his lips with Chanyeol’s. Minseok kisses like it’s the end of the world. His tongue is already in Chanyeol’s mouth and his hands are feeling up Chanyeol’s chest, trying to find the hem of his shirt.

Chanyeol tries to match Minseok’s energy and undoes a solid two more buttons before Minseok is moving his mouth down Chanyeol’s jaw, eliciting all sorts of sounds from him, loud and encouraging. Right up until Minseok reaches a specific spot on Chanyeol’s neck, then his voice drops down to a whimper, a soft plea for more and some clawing against Minseok’s clothes.

Minseok takes this as an invitation to mark Chanyeol’s neck, really letting his tongue and teeth do whatever they please to him. And Chanyeol doesn’t want the feeling to end, the tightness in his stomach, the quivering of his legs, the rush in his brain.

But all good things must come to an end as there is someone who clears their throat and Chanyeol is both ready to give the person a lecture about privacy when he and Minseok are clearly very busy people and hide in Minseok’s arms forever because there’s no way this person didn’t just hear Chanyeol moan at the top of his lungs.

Only when they come into focus, Chanyeol realizes that it’s Jongin. Oh good lord, this is somehow doubly embarrassing as Jongin just saw him with another guy.

“I’m not a slut,” Chanyeol blurts out even though that’s mostly a lie. He’s not a slut, just opportunistic when it comes to men. If he were an actual slut, then he would always be going after men. At least, that’s the definition he currently interprets it as. 

“I didn’t think you were,” Jongin replies, looking more confused than anything. “You guys can’t hook up here. I’m the one that cleans up in here and I refuse to clean up the jizz of someone who almost hooked up with Sehun.” Minseok starts laughing and climbs off Chanyeol.

“I have no idea what your issue is with him, but it would be the other way around if it even got that far,” Chanyeol corrects. He may be at sea, but he has a reputation to uphold. 

“That’s arguably worse,” Jongin deadpans. Chanyeol blinks at Jongin for a moment before standing up, accepting the fact that his night is being cut a little short tonight. “Now shoo, before I tell your friends about your little adventure.” Minseok scoffs but the two of them leave anyway, cart in tow sadly.

“I can’t believe he walked in on us,” Chanyeol mumbles. “Could he have at least waited until we left?”

“It’s weird that Jongin is even up here,” Minseok points out. “He’s not a janitor, but I guess he’s just covering for someone.”

“Oh yeah, I noticed his nametag said he’s a handler, but I have no idea what that means,” Chanyeol says, hoping to get a bit of information out of Minseok before returning to his room where there are no sexy men waiting for him, though he does have a towel alligator which is also very good.

“That means he escorts characters around and prevents people from harassing them. You are not allowed to break character no matter how weird or shitty a guest treats you. You swallow it down and hope your handler makes them go away. It’s shitty, but it’s much worse for the girls. I’ve almost punched a man for trying to get handsy with one of my friends,” Minseok explains.

“That makes sense, I hope Jongin is good at his job then,” Chanyeol replies.

“Yeah, he’s a real stand up guy which is why I didn’t tell him to go fuck himself.” Minseok presses the elevator button and Chanyeol can’t help but be a little disappointed. “But I still have my own room if you’d like to continue things there.”

“I would love to,” Chanyeol says. So maybe his night won’t be ending so early after all. Chanyeol and Minseok head back to his room, unable to keep their hands off each other during the elevator ride there. 

Chanyeol lets Minseok ravish him until the middle of the night when he realizes that he needs to go back to his room before tomorrow morning.

“Minseok Minseok,” Chanyeol mumbles, Minseok sucking a hickey into Chanyeol’s stomach. He releases the skin and comes back up to face Chanyeol.

“What is it?” Minseok asks.

“I have to go back to my room because if I don’t, I’ll end up spending the night here and I don’t want to walk of shame my first night here,” Chanyeol explains, still a bit breathless.

“Alright, sleep well then.” Minseok climbs off Chanyeol who pulls his shirt back on, buttons his pants and grabs his jacket. He catches a glimpse of himself in the wall mirror and his hair is standing up in every direction.

“I’ll take one more kiss before I go though.” Minseok smiles, stands and gives Chanyeol a soft kiss, one in complete contrast to his other ones.

“I finish work at one tomorrow, so do you want to meet me by the pool on deck nine at around two?” Minseok asks, voice barely higher than a whisper and Chanyeol eagerly nods. 

“I’ll see you there.” Chanyeol returns to his room with a smile on his face, excited for tomorrow.

  
  


**Day 2**

Chanyeol leaves his room dressed in loose swim trunks, ready to have some fun in the pool, but when he gets there, Minseok is nowhere to be seen. Chanyeol assumes he must just be running late or something, but it's 2:20, so Chanyeol might as well just have some fun on his own. Swimming can easily be a solo activity after all. 

Scanning his eyes across the three pools, Chanyeol is trying to assess which one of them has the fewest children and senior citizens (Chanyeol doesn’t fuck with people that pee in pools), but before he can draw a conclusion, someone clears their throat from behind him loudly.

“Oh, am I in the way or something, I was just trying to avoid children,” Chanyeol blurts out, spinning around and pulling the towel that’s on his shoulders tighter around them. 

“No, I was just curious if you knew that there’s an indoor pool for adults only? You seemed reluctant to get into the pool and I’m glad I was right about my hunch.” Chanyeol blushes from being read so easily. He will not be judged by some stranger though. Looking for a name tag proves fruitless as the stranger introduces himself. “I’m Jongdae, the co-captain of the ship.”

“Why aren’t you with Baekhyun then?” Chanyeol asks. Granted, he knows next to nothing about ships, but having both captains seems pretty important.

“You know Baekhyun?” Jongdae is taken off guard clearly, but composes himself. “And to answer your questions, we don’t really need to both be there, but we are always available just in case something goes wrong along with a few others trained as captains.”

“Just in case meaning so this isn’t Titanic 2: Electric Boogaloo,” Chanyeol says which earns him a laugh from Jongdae.

“That is an extreme, but yeah.”

“Oh yeah, me and Baekhyun are friends and he convinced me to take a vacation so I’m here.” Jongdae rests his hands on his hips.

“Baekhyun hasn’t mentioned any of his friends recently, I’ll have to pester him a bit more,” Jongdae replies. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Chanyeol, pleased to make your acquaintance.” 

“We don’t have to stay just acquaintances,” Jongdae suggests. “I’m not on duty until four. Normally, I’m up there in the evening, but he wanted some time off to do something.” Wow, Baekhyun doesn’t open up to his coworkers at all. Maybe it’s just professionalism, but damn.

“I’d love to have someone to swim with,” Chanyeol replies. For a second, he almost missed the double meaning in Jongdae’s words. Why is it that on the sea, he’s being flirted with left and right? On land, he could never. 

“Okay, walk with me and I’ll show you the pool,” Jongdae says, holding his arm out to Chanyeol who takes it happily. They walk arm and arm away from the pools and towards the opposite end of the boat. In through a set of double doors and down a hallway until they reach the pool. There’s glass on the outside, but it's all opaque. Jongdae lets go of Chanyeol’s arm to open one of the doors, allowing Chanyeol to enter first. 

There’s no one, not even a staff member in or around the pool which Chanyeol finds perplexing. What is his luck on this stuff? He hears the door click shut behind him and Chanyeol walks over to an empty beach chair and drops his towel and slips off his shoes.

“I must admit that I don’t have a proper swimsuit.” This doesn’t surprise Chanyeol in the slightest, and he thinks it's time for a calculated risk. His back is still to Jongdae who hasn’t said anything further. Chanyeol gives a quick pull on the drawstring of his swim shorts and they fall right off his legs.

Without a moment's hesitation, Chanyeol hops into the pool, warm water enveloping him. He stays there for a moment, relishing in the feeling before surfacing. Jongdae moves over to the doors and locks them, the click resounding throughout the empty space.

“I take it you don’t want nosy passengers catching you like this,” Chanyeol teases. Jongdae rolls his eyes and tugs off his shirt.

“I have a feeling you wouldn’t like it either,” Jongdae points out.

“You don’t know me,” Chanyeol counters. He honestly wouldn’t like to be caught with his pants down (literally), but a little excess flirting never hurt anyone. At least, he wouldn’t like a repeat of last night, especially when he’s actually naked this time.

“Fair point, but it would be a pain even if you did want to be caught,” Jongdae concedes, shucking off his pants and shoes, leaving him only in his boxers.

“Come on,” Chanyeol whines. “Don’t leave me hanging.” Jongdae scoffs, but removes his underwear anyway, climbing into the warm pool and swimming over to Chanyeol who smiles. “See that wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

“No, but what do I get for it?” Jongdae asks, reaching out to grab Chanyeol’s waist in the water. His fingers press into Chanyeol’s hip bones and one of them accidentally touches one of the hickeys Minseok had left last night. How Chanyeol forgot about all of those is a mystery in and of itself, but it doesn’t matter as the pressure makes Chanyeol whimper. “Whoever you were with last night couldn’t get his mouth off you and I don’t blame him. You’re too cute for your good.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol mumbles, feeling shy all of a sudden. “Would you like a kiss then?”

“Yes please,” Jongdae replies, pulling Chanyeol closer, so their noses are just brushing every so slightly. Chanyeol leans in, pressing his mouth to Jongdae’s, unsure of how he’s going to kiss, but being pleasantly surprised when Jongdae chooses to lead the kiss. Chanyeol doesn’t fight back against Jongdae’s tongue, just lets himself enjoy the experience of kissing, moving his arms so they loosely wrap around Jongdae’s shoulders, feeling comfortable and safe in his arms.

Jongdae breaks the kiss and lets one of his hands come up to run his thumbs along Chanyeol’s bottom lip. Without thinking, Chanyeol sucks Jongdae’s thumb into his mouth, tongue swirling around it, eyes never leaving Jongdae’s face.

“You’re truly something else,” Jongdae says, and Chanyeol moves to wrap his legs around Jongdae’s waist, pulling them closer. His shoulders and upper back leave the water, making him cold, but there’s so much warmth between him and Jongdae that he barely even notices. Chanyeol drops Jongdae’s thumbs from his mouth and moves to kiss softly around his ear.

Jongdae holds Chanyeol with both of his arms, one of them rubbing his lower back as Chanyeol sucks his ear lobe into his mouth. Chanyeol feels so at peace, being held in Jongdae’s arms. He moves to press kisses from Jongdae’s cheekbone down to his lips, reuniting them once again.

“Oh, Jongdae,” Chanyeol murmurs, breaking their kiss for just a moment. “I want you to keep kissing me and never stop. Your mouth works magic on mine.” Jongdae takes Chanyeol at his word and kisses him again with fervor.

After what seems to be an endless cycle of kissing and appreciating each other, Jongdae breaks the kiss and Chanyeol pouts at him, craving Jongdae still. Jongdae gives Chanyeol a kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“Have you ever tried to kiss someone underwater?” Jongdae asks and Chanyeol shakes his head. He’s certainly curious to try at the very least. “Do you want to try it then?”

“Yes, please,” Chanyeol replies.

“All you have to do is drop under with me, open your eyes if you can and kiss me,” Jongdae says. “It’s not hard, so I’m sure you’ll do great at it.” Chanyeol unlatches himself from Jongdae’s waist and they take a few steps farther into the pool where it’s a bit deeper. Jongdae takes Chanyeol’s hands and gives them a reassuring squeeze.

“Okay, let’s do this.” Chanyeol drops into the water at the same time as Jongdae and he pulls him close, latching their mouths together. The kiss only lasts a few seconds, but Chanyeol surfaces with a big smile on his face.

“Any thoughts?” Jongdae asks, going back to holding Chanyeol’s hands.

“Certainly fun, but I still like to kiss above water more,” Chanyeol decides and Jongdae smiles. 

“I’m glad you enjoyed it anyway.” Chanyeol gives Jongdae one last kiss before climbing out of the pool and attempting to pull on shorts and dry himself off as much as he can. While this has been a fun afternoon, Chanyeol has something he wants to do before meeting Baekhyun for dinner.

As silly as it may sound, Chanyeol wanted to swing by Minseok’s room once before dinner. Just on the off chance that he’s there. It was just so abbrut and considering the reason Chanyeol is there, he might as well check in.

But first off, Chanyeol needs to go to his room and make himself look a bit more presentable. And that means covering up the ridiculous amount of hickeys on him for the sake of not getting weird looks at dinner. Baekhyun’s text also said that he needs to dress like he's ‘going to the Oscars,’ so that means Chanyeol is going to wear a suit. 

At least he’s prepared. A small consolation, but it’s enough to help Chanyeol through the process of dressing himself. No makeup as Baekhyun knows what Chanyeol looks like without it and he doesn’t need to pick up any more guys. 

Running a brush through his hair, Chanyeol tries to make his hair lay just right across his forehead. One piece won’t work with the others which is always such a pain, but whoever is next door to Chanyeol must be throwing things against the walls or something because what on Earth is that thumping sound?

Chanyeol walks into the main room to try and get a better ear as to what could be happening. He doesn’t really want to knock on his neighbor’s door and find out that his neighbor was merely having too much fun.

But resting on the bed is a towel koala. Chanyeol wouldn’t think anything of it if it was here when he was getting dressed. How did it appear within the three minutes Chanyeol has been in the bathroom? No logical answer comes to mind, so Chanyeol frowns and chalks it up to his observational skills not being as good as he assumes they are.

It doesn’t really matter as stealthy animal towel makers aren’t getting in his way right now, but he does want to have time to stop by Minseok’s room before dinner.

Thankfully it’s not too far out of the way and Chanyeol makes it there in no time. He knocks at the door, not expecting much. After a moment of waiting, Chanyeol considers knocking again, but a voice behind him stops him.

“Minseok hasn’t been back to his room since he snuck out last night.” Chanyeol spins around. People really need to stop approaching him out of nowhere or he’s going to get a heart attack.

“And you are?” Chanyeol asks. He’s a bit concerned with what this person meant by Minseok sneaking out because Chanyeol left Minseok’s room well after one and at that point there’s nothing to do.

“I’m Kyungsoo, and if you’re not going somewhere then I suggest you walk with me as I have to get over to Lumiere’s for a shift.” Kyungsoo is dressed like a chef, but he’s missing a name tag and the funny hats that chefs wear.

“That’s actually where I’m headed,” Chanyeol says. “I’m Chanyeol, by the way. You’re like the fourth person I’ve met already and I keep forgetting to introduce myself.”

“It might suit you to invest in a name tag then,” Kyungsoo comments and Chanyeol has to roll his eyes at how blunt he is. 

“You might be right, but anyway, tell me about Minseok.” Kyungsoo is a speed walker which normally would be fine for Chanyeol, especially since he has four plus inches on Kyungsoo, but these god awful pant legs were not designed for a large range of motion.

“Since you’re a guest and you’re looking for him, I’m guessing you’re the one who was with him last night.” There’s no judgment in Kyungsoo’s tone, but Chanyeol is still embarrassed by the fact he’s so obvious. “I’ll take your silence as a yes, but anyway. After you left, I heard Minseok leave as well. Granted, it was around ten minutes later, but after that he didn’t return and he didn’t show for his shift today.” 

“How do you know all of this?” Chanyeol asks. A bit of healthy skepticism seems important here because if Minseok’s disappeared then Chanyeol has to look into it because once they port, Chanyeol won’t be able to do anything about it. He can’t track who leaves or gets on the ship himself. And there’s no way Baekhyun will let him start a full on investigation.

“Well, I live next door to Minseok and I'm a light sleeper which explains the first half, and the two of us get breakfast every day, but I got concerned when he wouldn’t open the door. Ultimately I left, but I tipped off one of his coworkers who confirmed my fear of him not showing for his shift.” They’ve finally reached the elevator and Chanyeol is trying very hard not to sweat at all.

“Okay, well then how do I find him?” Chanyeol asks.

“Meet me after my shift and we can go do a bit of digging,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m off at eleven and should be ready to leave by eleven fifteen or so.”

“Sounds good to me.” The elevator doors chime and they step inside, Kyungsoo hitting the fourth floor button without even looking. Chanyeol spends the elevator ride, admiring Kyungsoo while simultaneously trying to get a read on him. But it’s like he’s covered in tin foil or something.

“Why are you staring at me?” Kyungsoo asks and Chanyeol chokes on his spit. He is looking like a goddamn fool right now.

“I wasn’t,” Chanyeol lies. It’s really not a convincing lie in the slightest. Kyungsoo scoffs and closes the distance between them, tilting his head to the side like he’s confused by Chanyeol.

“Oh, please,” Kyungsoo mumbles. “I can tell I intrigue you at the very least.” What is it about cruise ships that is making all the men around Chanyeol so thirsty? He’s not even opposed, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous at this point.

“And so what if I do?” Chanyeol counters. At the very least, he’s going to take advantage of this because well, Chanyeol is very very gay. Before Kyungsoo can reply, the doors open and the moment is broken and they are back to power walking.

They reach Lumiere’s right as Baekhyun walks up, so Chanyeol slows down and lets Kyungsoo power walk his way into the kitchen. Chanyeol takes a moment to catch his breath and Baekhyun looks at him with a raised brow.

“Already found a guy?” Baekhyun asks and Chanyeol rolls his eyes. He is so ready to go back to old times with Baekhyun and be made fun of for his taste in men.

“Three actually, technically four if you count my date last night,” Chanyeol explains and Baekhyun’s jaw actually drops. “Yes, I know, let's get something to drink because I have so much to tell you.” 

“I can’t wait to hear it,” Baekhyun replies. They walk in and Baekhyun checks them in and they are escorted to a table next to one of the large windows that look out over the water.

Chanyeol puts his napkin in his lap first thing and then opens up his menu, scanning through the items, but Baekhyun reaches over and pushes it to the table.

“Come on, Yeol,” Baekhyun whines, a bit of his old self showing through. “Spill about these guys first then we can focus on dinner.” 

“Okay, so the guy I came here with, Kyungsoo, we haven’t actually hooked up or anything like that, but we had this weird moment in the elevator and we were so about to kiss, but then the doors opened and it was over,” Chanyeol begins. “Then this afternoon, I kinda went skinny dipping in the indoor pool with Jongdae.” At this Baekhyun’s jaw drops for a second time.

“You got with my co-captain, in a pool, in the middle of the day,” Baekhyun repeats and Chanyeol nods, ears burning a bright red from embarrassment. “I can’t believe it!”

“Shush!” Chanyeol ducks his head so no one can see him if they look over. “I didn’t even get to the other two. But I only ran into Jongdae and Kyungsoo because I was looking for Minseok, one of the janitors and he’s gone missing.”

“What on Earth have you gotten up to?” Baekhyun asks.

“Well, I was with this other guy I’ll get to in a second and then he ditched me and I ran into Minseok last night, but then, Kyungsoo, his neighbor, didn’t see him again and he didn’t show up for his shift today. All in all, really suspicious, but he could just be avoiding everyone y’know. So after Kyungsoo’s shift we are going to look for him a bit,” Chanyeol explains. Repeating this back to Baekhyun makes this trip sound so much more adventurous then it has been.

“Okay, now what about the guy who ditched you?” Baekhyun has his elbows on the table and he’s hanging on to Chanyeol’s every word.

“That’s Sehun.” On Chanyeol saying his name, Baekhyun’s face changes, just for a moment, but it returns to normal less than a fraction of a second later. “We hit it off in the bar on the main floor and we were on the deck when he had to take some call, so I spent the rest of last night with Minseok instead because fuck him y’know.”

“Oh, for sure,” Baekhyun agrees. “I can’t believe he would do that. But you have all these other guys hanging off you, so I wouldn’t worry. Besides, you’ll probably find Minseok just took the day off for some reason without telling anyone. It happens around here sometimes and like— it’s really not a huge deal as long as the ship keeps running.”

“Yeah, it just made me a little irked that he stood me up, but it worked out in the end anyway,” Chanyeol says.

“That’s for sure,” Baekhyun mutters and Chanyeol laughs, swatting Baekhyun lightly across the table.

The rest of dinner goes smoothly, and even though Baekhyun and Chanyeol spend nearly fifteen minutes arguing about who can pay, eventually Baekhyun wins Chanyeol over. He sits smugly across from Chanyeol while they wait for the check.

“You never let me win,” Baekhyun points out. “I’m glad I got to win at least once.”

“Being at sea makes everyone act a bit different,” Chanyeol replies airily, not pleased that he doesn’t get to at least pay for Baekhyun’s meal considering he hasn’t paid for his room or any of the free food he’s consumed during the day. Baekhyun sticks out his tongue and checks his phone for a moment, frowning at it. “Something wrong?”

“I have to go back up and help, it seems that Jongdae has run into an issue, but it was really nice to chat with you, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun says, walking out of Lumiere’s with Chanyeol.

“It’s okay, I hope it’s resolved quickly. I might go try to find ice cream or something,” Chanyeol replies. He can tell Baekhyun feels bad about this, so Chanyeol tries to sooth his guilt. Baekhyun can’t control the ship, and he spent the entire dinner being a great friend. Honestly, Chanyeol isn’t too beat up about it.

Chanyeol decides he might as well do some investigating if he has some free time, though ice cream does also sound really good. Either way, he has to change out of this suit. He heads back to his room, changes into a black turtleneck and slips on some shredded black jeans. It’s quite a look, he won’t lie, and there was minimal effort involved which is always a bonus. But there’s one other thing Chanyeol is going to need before going down to the deck, his mini crime fighting kit.

It sounds really childish, but it contains all the things Chanyeol would need just in case something happens. He has fuzzy handcuffs— they’re fuzzy so they are less suspicious than regular handcuffs, a black light, mini pink mace, some clear tape, and a flashlight. The black light and tape are so Chanyeol can actually find evidence. There’s also an assortment of small storage things in his bag just in case. Chanyeol puts on the cross body bag, reviews the contents one more time and heads off.

Why no one is out here is so strange. The pool is literally open until one am, but its currently half past nine. Who sleeps before ten? Whatever, it’s all fine. The first thing Chanyeol wanted to look at is the railing where he bumped into Minseok yesterday. It’s quite possible that someone else wiped it down completely last night, but it’s still a starting point.

Chanyeol pulls out his tape and black light, shining it on the rail. Nothing stands out as Chanyeol is walking until he’s close to the end. There’s blood all over the rail. It’s been cleaned, but there’s still residue there. Well, fuck. This might be turning into a murder investigation rather than a drug one. Chanyeol snaps a picture of the blood and takes a swap of the rail, hoping that this can at least be identified to someone.

Maybe Chanyeol could get lucky and find some fingerprints too, but of course, there’s dozens and dozens of prints layered over each other, meaning that even if he did find one, there’s no telling if it’s a guest or the possible victim here.

Chanyeol hears a loud splash from the opposite side of the boat and he nearly drops his black light in his rush to figure out what’s going on. He races to the edge and leans over, seeing the lifeboats floating away in the water.

Okay, what the fuck? Why would someone toss the lifeboats? Since they just fell into the water, the perpetrator is still nearby. Chanyeol wishes he had something a little stronger than mace, but it’s not like him or the perpetrator could get weapons on this ship, everyone is scanned when they enter and Baekhyun has no idea about the investigation, so no special circumstances either.

Nothing in Chanyeol’s police training prepared him for what to do when lifeboats fall into the water, so he just looks around for anyone suspicious for a moment. Chanyeol swears he sees someone from around the corner and he carefully tip toes in their direction. When he can get full visibility, Chanyeol sees the same man from the first night who he thought disappeared.

“Stop!” Chanyeol yells and the figure spins around, looking surprised before taking off. Chanyeol races after the figure for several minutes until they duck into one of the closest food areas. Frowning, Chanyeol follows the figure in, grabbing his flashlight and stepping into the round orange building. There’s nowhere to go, but the person is gone. Completely vanished. What on Earth?

Chanyeol double checks the entire giant orange, he’s sure that the person ran in here and there’s no way that they could have snuck out without Chanyeol noticing. There’s no physical way. God damn it. The ice cream machine stares at Chanyeol and he sighs, giving into the urge. He grabs a cone and gives himself as much vanilla soft serve as the cone can hold. Yeah, ice cream will certainly make him feel better about his suspect getting away. At the very least, he got a good look at the guy and he knows that there are databases of everyone who works and is on the cruise with photos. 

He’ll have to figure out how to get that information tomorrow, which might require fessing up to Baekhyun about the true intentions of this trip. Because Chanyeol hasn’t found any drugs, only a possible murder and a missing person. But if that’s the crime he can solve, he’ll take that. 

This ice cream is seriously good. But Chanyeol still needs to decide what to do about the now missing lifeboats. There’s a reason the ship has them after all, but who does Chanyeol tell? Baekhyun seems like an obvious choice, but there might be someone else better to tell who isn’t so busy.

Chanyeol checks his phone and sees that it's nearly eleven. Fuck, he has to go meet Kyungsoo. He’ll explain about the lifeboats and take him to go see Baekhyun, even though Chanyeol is unsure of Baekhyun’s exact location. But it’s not like he can be anywhere, he’s probably in his room or in the captain’s quarters or whatever it’s called.

Licking his ice cream, Chanyeol heads back to Lumiere’s. He spots Kyungsoo who furrows his brows when he sees Chanyeol, but walks over anyway.

“You got ice cream?” Kyungsoo asks, almost like he’s confused by the existence of ice cream. “And you changed clothes again?”

“Yes, I got ice cream for stress, which I will explain in a moment, and yeah, I don’t like wearing suits,” Chanyeol replies. “But do you have somewhere where we can go and won’t be overheard?” Kyungsoo raises a brow, but leads Chanyeol back to the staff break room.

“This is the best I’ve got. No one will hear you unless you start screaming,” Kyungsoo says. Chanyeol takes one last bit of his ice cream before starting to explain.

“So I was up on deck nine and I heard this splash, so I raced over to see what’s wrong and I saw the lifeboats floating away. And I freaked out, so I got ice cream and then came here,” Chanyeol explains. That’s an abbreviated version and he skips over the disappearing man because he isn’t one hundred percent sure his mind isn’t just making shit up at this point.

“Well, I see you’ve had quite the adventure,” Kyungsoo begins. “But yeah, we need to go tell Baekhyun immediately. He’s the one who will know what to do.” Kyungsoo undoes his apron and rolls up his sleeves, revealing very strong looking arms, which is really not what Chanyeol should be thinking about right now.

“Yeah, I think Baekhyun might be in his room since he’s not formally on shift tonight,” Chanyeol says and Kyungsoo nods.

“Okay, let’s go there first then.” The two of them power walk to the elevator, this time having no sexual tension sort of moment. Chanyeol is glad that Kyungsoo didn’t freak out because that would make everything seem a bit too real, which won’t really help him try to figure out what happened.

The doors ping open and Chanyeol leads Kyungsoo down the hall to Baekhyun’s room. Funnily enough, it’s just on the opposite end of the hall to Chanyeol’s room. Chanyeol sucks in a breath before knocking on Baekhyun’s door.

“Oh, S—” Baekhyun stops and looks at Kyungsoo and Chanyeol for a moment. “Why are you two here?”

“Well, you see,” Chanyeol begins. “All the lifeboats are missing and you seem like the person to tell.” All the blood seems to drain from Baekhyun’s face.

“Care to elaborate on that?” Chanyeol nods and explains everything to Baekhyun who nods slowly. Kyungsoo stays quiet, his presence calming Chanyeol enough to help him through the whole story.

“So what do we do?” Kyungsoo asks.

“We need to go get Jongdae,” Baekhyun decides. “He’s the one that’s in charge of emergency preparedness and will know exactly what we should do.” Chanyeol nods and Baekhyun steps out of his room, already dressed in pajamas and not wearing shoes. Baekhyun walks to the captain’s quarters in the center of the hallway with Chanyeol and Kyungsoo in tow. 

The three of them walk in together and Chanyeol doesn’t see anyone he recognizes which sets off red flags immediately. Kyungsoo grabs Chanyeol’s hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze while Baekhyun walks in and asks where Jongdae is. 

“Jongdae left about an hour ago saying he had something he needed to take care of, but said we didn’t need to call you in,” one of the staff say.

“Fuck,” Baekhyun mutters. “Okay, do you all have it under control right now? Because we need to find Jongdae ASAP. I’m going to go with those two down to Jongdae’s room just to double check that he isn’t there, but I should be back shortly.”

“Yeah, everything is perfectly fine.” What a relief because if there were issues and no lifeboats, Chanyeol might freak out a bit. That would so not be fun. The three of them leave the captain’s area and head into the elevator down to the same floor where Kyungsoo stays.

“If Jongdae isn’t here, where are we going to look next?” Chanyeol asks. Baekhyun is tapping his foot impatiently and its making Chanyeol nervous. He’s seen Baekhyun through a lot, but this is easily in the top three most stressful moments for the two of them.

“I don’t know. He rarely goes other places and if he said it was an emergency, I can’t even think of what would happen that would be an emergency for him. I’ll go back upstairs and radio around to see if anyone has seen him. Kyungsoo do you have your radio with you?” Baekhyun asks.

“Yeah, I have it,” Kyungsoo replies.

“Okay great.” The doors ping open and Baekhyun practically flies out of the door, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo trailing after him. There’s someone sitting with his back against a door, looking at the three of them curiously, but Baekhyun pays him no mind, instead pounding on Jongdae’s door like there’s no tomorrow. Someone is bound to come outside if they hear that sort of knocking. Though it might not be Jongdae with how loud that is.

“What’s his deal?” the stranger asks and Chanyeol isn’t sure if he really wants to engage with this person, but whatever.

“He’s looking for Jongdae,” Chanyeol says. Kyungsoo has kept walking and is over by Baekhyun, trying to calm him down just a little bit.

“I can see that.” Chanyeol looks for a name tag and doesn’t see one. Man, everyone really should start wearing name tags at this point. 

“Have you seen him by any chance?” Chanyeol asks.

“Not within the last two hours.”

“And who are you?”

“I’m Yixing.” Yixing extends a hand for a handshake and Chanyeol takes it. “I’m locked out of my room because I’m an idiot, so I’ve been waiting for someone from maintenance to show up for like two hours.”

“That’s actually really helpful,” Chanyeol admits. Baekhyun pounds on Jongdae’s door a few more times and Chanyeol is about to walk over when Baekhyun freezes.

“I need to make a call,” Baekhyun says out of the blue, reaching into his pajamas for his phone and dialing frantically. Whoever he calls answers immediately and Baekhyun starts talking in Korean to them, which raises a red flag to Chanyeol because Baekhyun knows that he doesn’t speak Korean.

Chanyeol glances to Kyungsoo, hoping he understood some of what was said, but nothing in his expression gives that away. Fuck. Needing to think things through, Chanyeol starts pacing. Yixing is still on the floor, watching him peculiarily. 

“What?” Chanyeol drops his voice and Yixing beckons him closer. Dropping down to his knees, Chanyeol sits down next to Yixing. “Do you speak Korean or something?”

“Not very well, but yeah,” Yixing replies, keeping his voice in a hushed tone. “Baekhyun is basically saying that things have gone very wrong and they need to find a way to correct their mistake. But he’s saying it like it’s his fault that the lifeboats disappeared.” Chanyeol frowns.

“I don’t know if you know much about Baekhyun, but do you know who he could be speaking to?” Chanyeol asks. Kyungsoo has looked back at this point and gives Chanyeol a curious look and Chanyeol mouths back ‘later.’ He nods and turns his attention back to Baekhyun.

“I have no clue.”

“Well, that’s no good. Could you do me a favor and ask around for me to see if there’s anyone else that Baekhyun is close to really?” Chanyeol asks.

“Sure thing, and let me know if you need anything else, alright?” Chanyeol nods and Yixing sets his hand on Chanyeol’s thigh. Oh come on, is every stranger that Chanyeol runs into going to try and hook up with him?

**Day 3**

The next morning, Chanyeol finds two towel monkeys staring at him from across the room and groans. It’s already eleven am, but he really doesn’t want to be awake. Everything is going to shit, but the towel monkeys do make it a little bit better.

Chanyeol gets dressed and throws on a beanie and flannel because he cannot be asked to do anything more for his appearance. F’s for his himboness, he supposes. Right now, all he wants is coffee. The most intense coffee that he can legally be served sounds delicious right about now.

He heads down to the lobby, ready to beg for someone to give him directions to coffee, but instead he’s forced to work around a line of people to see Mickey Mouse. Oh Mr. Mouse…

Chanyeol doesn’t care that people take pictures with people in glorified furry costumes, but right now all of these furry enthusiasts are getting between him and his coffee. Glancing over a Mickey, Chanyeol sighs, it’s probably easier to walk behind him than trying to get around this line of people.

Only when Chanyeol gets closer, he sees a familiar face standing by Mickey; Jongin. Yeah, not right now. Chanyeol is about to turn and make a beeline to anywhere but here, except Jongin starts to walk towards Chanyeol. How weird would it be if he took off running? Nothing in his career has ever prepared him for someone to beckon him towards a man in a mouse suit. Chanyeol sighs and lets Jongin walk him back over to Mickey.

“Yeah, I know this is weird, but I’m gonna need for you to come with me,” Jongin explains, not looking sympathetic to Chanyeol at all. The only thing that allows Chanyeol to walk with Jongin is the knowledge in his mind that he’s in a very public area and he knows how to throw a punch.

“Hello… Mickey,” Chanyeol says weakly. There’s lots of people who seem to really want Mickey’s attention and don’t look too happy that Chanyeol is cutting the line, but Mickey puts a hand on his shoulders and starts to guide him towards a door labeled ‘Cast Members Only.’ Chanyeol isn’t a cast member, nor does he want to pretend to be one. Jongin tells everyone that Mickey is done for now, but he’ll be back this afternoon and Chanyeol rolls his eyes. “Okay, what the fuck is going on?” 

“Shut up, Chanyeol,” Jongin says through gritted teeth. “This wasn’t my idea at all.” Chanyeol turns to Mickey. Who on Earth is under that mouse head? When the door clicks shut behind them, Mickey pulls his head off, revealing Yixing. 

“Why am I not surprised?” Chanyeol asks rhetorically.

“Man, you’re in a pissy mood,” Yixing says, putting the mouse head under one arm. Honestly this isn’t a look at all. There’s a reason that no one is allowed to see characters without parts of their costumes on.

“I haven’t had any coffee yet,” Chanyeol replies.

“Look, while that sucks,” Jongin begins. “Yixing told me you wanted to know a bit about Sehun and where to find him.” Chanyeol’s ears perk up and Jongin rolls his eyes. “See now you want to listen to me.”

“Please just tell me what you know,” Chanyeol whines.

“Anyway, Sehun has dinner reservations at Animator’s Place at nine. It’s for him and someone else, but you could easily sneak in and interrupt his dinner,” Jongin says and Chanyeol blinks at him.

“Are you kidding me?” Chanyeol asks in disbelief.

“Hear him out, Chanyeol,” Yixing encourages. That mouse costume is really not doing him any favors, good lord.

“All you have to do is pretend you were there to have dinner anyway and sit down. Wear something kinda sexy and it should all work out.” Jongin must think that Chanyeol is out of his mind.

“This is a terrible idea, but considering I don’t have any other plans, I’ll do it,” Chanyeol relents. If he can come up with something in the next ten hours or so, then he’ll do that instead, but in all likelihood, he’s gonna crash Sehun’s dinner.

“Nice,” Yixing cheers. 

“Okay, now let me go get some coffee before I fall asleep standing up,” Chanyeol decides, turning around, ready to leave, but Jongin grabs his shoulder.

“We’ll be nearby Animators Palace, so check in with us, alright?” Jongin gives Chanyeol a once over and Chanyeol nods slowly.

“Will do.” Jongin lets go of Chanyeol and Chanyeol heads out of the cast member’s room, finding some new people standing around, still hoping to see Mickey or someone. They all look immensely disappointed to see Chanyeol who sighs and walks around them to try and find some coffee.

With a possibly lethal amount of caffeine in his system, Chanyeol heads back to his room. For right now, he wants to try and put some more pieces together of this case on his own. Think some stuff over and hope that he gets an answer to why people are going missing and whether or not it has anything to do with the cocaine smuggling.

Chanyeol opens the door of his room and nearly spits out his coffee. There’s the stranger from last night, making a towel dolphin on his bed. Fumbling for a moment, Chanyeol grabs his fuzzy handcuffs from his bag, not letting his eyes leave the stranger.

“Put your hands up,” Chanyeol says, trying to make himself sound much more intimidating than he really is. The stranger turns his head towards Chanyeol and goes ghostly pale.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Chanyeol handcuffs the stranger to part of the bed frame with not much resistance from the lifeboat thrower.

“Alright, now spill about what happened last night because I saw you right after lifeboats ended up in the water because I saw you and you ran away from me which is suspicious you know,” Chanyeol demands.

“Okay, well, you really won’t believe me, but I’m a ghost. Someone on this ship killed me and I need to find out who. I think they are going to try and escape soon, so I ditched the lifeboats.” Chanyeol stares at the stranger for a second, blinking in disbelief. It’s far too early for this. “I can see you don’t believe me. We went into that orange food hut or whatever, right?” Chanyeol nods hesitantly. “Then I disappeared because I’m a fucking ghost.” Chanyeol leans over and pokes the stranger, finding flesh. He’s colder than a normal human should be and his eyes are a bit glassy, but he could technically be a person.

“Yeah, I’m really not a believer in ghosts,” Chanyeol says.

“Look, I can’t walk through walls at will,” the stranger defends. “Sometimes I become more ghost- like and sometimes I’m more human- like. When I’m more human-ish I’ve been making you towel animals because they are fun to make and you really liked that first one I made you.” The towel animals do make Chanyeol more inclined to trust this stranger, but he can’t let the magic of shaping towels distract him from getting answers.

“What’s your name?” Chanyeol asks. 

“Junmyeon Kim. I was on the last cruise here and whoever killed me didn’t account for the fact that this ship is cursed or some shit because I’m not dead as you can tell.” Chanyeol pokes Junmyeon a second time, just to make sure he's still really solid. He is, if anyone else was wondering.

“Okay, I’ll take your word for it. Can you explain anything about the missing people because Jongdae and Minseok are both missing and now that you’ve mentioned looking for your killer— er, your almost killer, it does make you look suspicious for killing them,” Chanyeol points out and Junmyeon rolls his eyes at Chanyeol, looking almost miffed.

“I don’t know who those people are, but yeah, the only way I can figure out if someone is my killer or not is by pushing them over the side because that's what happened to me. I only know through trial and error before you ask,” Junmyeon replies and Chanyeol gasps.

“You just admitted to a double murder,” Chanyeol mumbles. Most people don’t admit to murder that easily and for obvious reasons.

“Yeah, because I’m a ghost. You can’t arrest a ghost,” Junmyeon deadpans. He turns more translucent and stands up, wrist completely going through the handcuffs.

“Motherfucker,” Chanyeol mutters. “Isn’t there at least a better way to do this because you keep killing innocent people, which isn’t okay.”

“I don’t think there’s another way.” With that, Junmyeon disappears through Chanyeol’s door. Chanyeol flings it open to try and find him but he’s gone. This is not good. Chanyeol has figured out where the missing people have gone, but he doesn’t know how to stop people from going missing or who Junmyeon will try to get next.

Chanyeol spends the next hour locked in his room, trying to find some connection between Minseok and Jongdae to predict who might be next, but their only connection is both being Korean and working on this ship. There’s too many staff to adequately help them all, and it’s improbable at best that being Korean is relevant to this.

After realizing that he won’t be able to draw any conclusions with no information on Junmyeon, Chanyeol tries to look him up. No results. It seems that no one has even noticed that he’s gone missing in the first place which means he has no jumping off point there either.

With no leads, Chanyeol goes to get lunch and then to Kyungsoo’s room, hoping to at least talk through some things. Maybe Kyungsoo will be able to tell him something about Minseok and Jongdae that Chanyeol doesn’t know.

Knocking on Kyungsoo’s door, Chanyeol waits patiently for an answer. There’s a chance that Kyungsoo is on shift and Chanyeol will turn to ice cream to solve his problems, but thankfully Kyungsoo opens the door. He’s dressed in casual clothes and not chef’s clothes which throws Chanyeol off guard for a moment, but Chanyeol walks in anyway.

“So you’re not going to believe this,” Chanyeol begins, sitting down on Kyungsoo’s bed. Kyungsoo closes the door and stands in front of Chanyeol. “I know what happened to Jongdae and Minseok.”

“That’s amazing!” Kyungsoo cheers. “But you don’t look happy…”

“Yeah because they were thrown overboard by a ghost who’s trying to catch his killer.” Kyungsoo’s jaw drops open.

“You can’t be—”

“I am one hundred percent serious,” Chanyeol interrupts. “I know how it sounds, but that’s all I know and I have no other leads.” Kyungsoo’s brows furrow.

“Okay, but for the moment, I think you should lay down. I know you’ve had a stressful day yesterday and now you’re trying to solve a serious crime which is so admirable, but it’s not your job.” But it is Chanyeol’s job! Chanyeol bites his lip and kicks off his shoes. He’s not about to get anything else done right this second, so he supposes that he can try to calm his brain a bit.

“Fine.” Chanyeol lays back on Kyungsoo’s bed and Kyungsoo crawls in next to him, but not touching him at all. Kyungsoo is laying on his side while Chanyeol stares up at the ceiling.

“I don’t know how comfortable you are right now, so tell me what’s okay,” Kyungsoo says softly.

“I think I’d like to be held and feel cared for,” Chanyeol mumbles.

“I can do that.” Kyungsoo pulls Chanyeol in close and wraps one of his legs around Chanyeol’s waist and puts his arms around his chest, head into the crook of Chanyeol’s neck. “Is this okay?”

“Yeah, this is really nice,” Chanyeol replies, putting his arm around Kyungsoo, enjoying the feeling of being cuddled for the first time in several years. The feeling of someone’s heartbeat, the warmth of their skin, soft breath against his skin; it’s indescribable just how much Chanyeol needed this.

There’s a light pressure against Chanyeol’s neck. He cranes his head to see Kyungsoo giving him a few little kisses. Nothing harsh enough to leave a mark, only a press of lips for the briefest of moments, setting off fireworks under Chanyeol’s skin.

Chanyeol lets his hand dip under Kyungsoo’s shirt and gently draws shapes on his back. In response, Kyungsoo hums and gives a longer lasting kiss to Chanyeol’s neck. Turning his head, Chanyeol nudges Kyungsoo, trying to draw him away from his neck and towards his mouth. Kyungsoo complies and connects his mouth with Chanyeol’s. They kiss languidly, not making any move to leave each other's arms, only appreciate and care for the other.

Eventually the two of them drift to sleep, curled together. Chanyeol sleeps like a baby and awakes hours later to the sun lower in the sky and Kyungsoo gone. He groans and sits up, looking around for any sign of the exact time or where Kyungsoo may have gone.

The clock says it's nearly six pm, meaning Chanyeol slept for over five hours. He stands up and looks for a note or something from Kyungsoo and finds a note sitting on the desk. It says that Kyungsoo will be on deck nine doing a live cooking event. 

Now Chanyeol has no reason to suspect that Kyungsoo may be Junmyeon’s next target, but he fits the criteria of being a staff member, is Korean (even though that might be irrelevant), and is on the deck where Junmyeon likes to throw people off the ship.

Chanyeol grabs his shoes and basically sprints to the elevator, heading up to deck nine, hoping that he can convince Kyungsoo to go somewhere else or spot Junmyeon and get him to not throw Kyungsoo (or anyone for that matter overboard). The elevator ride takes far too long for Chanyeol’s liking and he’s bursting out as soon as the doors are open enough for him to get out. He runs outside and looks for Kyungsoo, but all he sees is a cluster of people by the rail of the deck.

“Hey what’s going on?” Chanyeol asks.

“The chef fell into the water and now someone is trying to get him out, but they can’t see him at all,” someone replies and Chanyeol feels sick to his stomach. He got here too late to stop Junmyeon. Chanyeol freezes where he’s standing and leans against the nearest wall to prevent himself from collapsing to the ground.

Once Chanyeol has got a hold of himself, he pulls out his phone and calls Baekhyun. It goes straight to voicemail which makes everything feel especially hopeless. Crewmates have shuffled out at this point and are directing everyone back inside and Chanyeol lets himself be guided with the crowd back into the building. 

The deck is formally closed, which should hopefully prevent another one of these events, but Chanyeol still feels utterly miserable. How is it that out of the three guys Chanyeol has kissed on this ship, three of them have been thrown overboard as a form of ghost revenge? What are the odds of that seriously?

Chanyeol isn’t really present, merely leaning against the wall near the deck entrance, but he overhears a crewmate tell someone that it was a freak wind accident and rage fills Chanyeol. There wasn’t a single fucking breeze out there. How on Earth does the crew think that they can convince people of that? Chanyeol dials Baekhyun again and it goes straight to voicemail. Again.

Checking the time, Chanyeol sees that it's six thirty, meaning only two-ish hours until he has to show up to Sehun’s dinner. That’s honestly such a stupid plan, especially if Sehun really is the guy thats supplying coke to everyone on the ship. He’s not going to flat out admit it, and there’s nearly no evidence to support that claim to begin with.

Fuck it. Chanyeol takes the elevator down to the lobby and heads into the bar from the first night. The bartender recognizes him and gives him a smile. Running a hand through his hair, Chanyeol looks behind the bar for whatever alcohol he might be feeling this night.

“Not sure what you want?” the bartender asks.

“Give me anything that will make me drunk quickly,” Chanyeol replies. He still isn’t fond of the taste of alcohol, but being drunk sounds amazing right now. Absolutely everything is too much for him to handle. Chanyeol rests his head on the bar which is a bad idea because the wood is sticky beyond belief, so he straightens up immediately and hopes there isn’t residue on his forehead.

“Here you go.” An array of shots are placed in front of Chanyeol in a variety of colors. He thanks the bartender before examining his options. Naturally, he picks the blue one first and swallows it back. It burns like absolute hell, but Chanyeol can’t bring himself to care. Then a clear one. Finally, a green one. 

At this point, Chanyeol is numb to the burning in his throat. He’s certainly feeling drunk and the bartender comes back with a bottle of water to which Chanyeol glares at.

“If that’s not vodka, I’m leaving,” Chanyeol slurs and the bartender laughs.

“You still should drink some water or else you will not feel great tomorrow.” Chanyeol grumbles but drinks the water anyway. “Honestly, you might have done too much too fast.”

“Give me a frozen margarita,” Chanyeol demands, trying to keep his voice crystal clear so the bartender doesn’t think he’s drunk. The bartender sighs, but gives Chanyeol a strawberry margarita anyway. Chanyeol nods as he sips it. When the bartender turns around to help another guest, Chanyeol leaves. He probably needs to get to Sehun’s dinner reservation now anyway.

Turns out it’s only eight, so Chanyeol loiters outside of Animator’s Palace sipping his margarita. He’s a little dizzy, but he’s leaning against a wall, so he’s doing alright for now. Chanyeol pulls out his phone and starts texting Baekhyun. He still won’t answer his fucking phone, so Chanyeol is logically going to spam him until his hand gets tired. All in all he gets about sixty texts in before his hand is tired and he’s done with his drink.

Checking the time, Chanyeol sees that it’s almost nine. He glances into the restaurant, looking for Sehun and spots him just sitting down. Now is his chance. Chanyeol steps away from the wall, feels like he’s about to lose his balance, spots Baekhyun sitting down with Sehun, and drops his drink. The glass shatters, but no one seems to hear the smash. Chanyeol thinks he’s going to throw up, so he runs towards the nearest potted planet and drops to his knees.

Once he’s done, Chanyeol feels two hands on his back. He turns his head, feeling much better now that there is no margarita in his stomach. He may have thrown up those shots too, but he has no idea. Standing over him is Yixing and Jongin.

“Oh hi, guys,” Chanyeol says. “I’m glad you’re not wearing your mickey costume because that makes you look not hot.” 

“Thanks, Chanyeol,” Yixing replies. “But come on, let's get you up.” Chanyeol holds up his arms wimpily, making Jongin and Yixing each take one and pull him up off the ground. His arms go around their shoulders and they help him walk over to the elevators.

“Did you see anything?” Jongin asks. Yixing gives Jongin a glare and Chanyeol blinks at them.

“Yeah, I saw Sehun with Baekhyun.” Yixing gasps and Jongin mutters something. “What do we do now?”

“Right now, we’re gonna take you to the spa because you reek and must feel gross,” Yixing decides. “You won’t be able to get to the bottom of anything while drunk, so tell me what you drank and it’ll be all cool.”

“I had like three vodka shots and that margarita,” Chanyeol slurs, hanging his head as they walk into the elevator. Jongin presses the button and Chanyeol feels his stomach lurch.

“How long ago?” Yixing asks.

“Like an hour ago,” Chanyeol mumbles.

“Okay so you got the margherita out of your system, but you’ll probably still feel icky for about three more hours. We’re gonna get you lots of water, okay?” Yixing reassures, rubbing Chanyeol’s back.

“Yixing knows his alcohol,” Jongin pipes up. “If I had to pick anyone to give me drinking advice I’d pick him.”

“Thanks, Nini,” Yixing says.

“Nini?” Chanyeol clarifies.

“Yeah, it’s Yixing’s nickname for me,” Jongin explains. The doors ping open and Chanyeol coos because that’s such a cute name.

“I love it,” Chanyeol mumbles.

“Uh huh,” Jongin replies. Yixing and Jongin guide Chanyeol out of the elevator and down the hallway to the spa. They talk to a few of the staff for a moment, but Chanyeol isn’t really listening. All he gets from the conversation is that Jongin is pulling a favor to use a room when they are about to close.

They enter one of the back rooms and it’s all white and pastel pink. There’s a huge tub inlaid to the floor, massage tables and shelves of products to help relax clients. Chanyeol really wants to get in that tub. He’s always been more of a bath person rather than a shower person and it shows.

“It is bath time,” Chanyeol declares before trying to detach himself from Yixing and Jongin, but Jongin doesn’t let go and pulls him closer.

“You’re going to fall over if you do that,” Jongin warns. “Yixing, go get him some water and I’ll try to see if I can clean him up a bit.” Chanyeol nods along and Jongin guides him to the counter. “Now don’t move.” 

“Alrightie.” Jongin wets a washcloth and uses it to clean off Chanyeol’s face which sobers him up quite a bit. Yixing returns with a glass of water which Chanyeol takes gratefully. Once he’s done, he says, “So now what?”

“Now you need a bath. Me and Jongin can turn away while you get in, but if you’re drunk you’re more likely to fall asleep in the tub. But don’t worry, we’ll make sure there are lots of bubbles,” Yixing explains. He’s surprisingly nice. Like Chanyeol didn’t expect this from him, so he’s feeling extra emotional. 

“Shit,” Jongin curses. “Yixing you made him cry.” 

“No, I’m just glad you two are taking care of me,” Chanyeol says through his tears. “I normally don’t cry.”

“It’s okay, let me go start the bath,” Yixing replies. He walks over to the huge tub and flicks on the hot water and then goes over to one of the shelfs and grabs some bubble bath, pouring it into the tub.

“Do you need help getting undressed?” Jongin asks.

“No clue, but I’m not shy so don’t worry you’re gonna ruin my modesty,” Chanyeol replies. His beanie comes off easily enough and he tosses it on the counter, then he unbuttons his flannel and drops it. Jeans are just as easy and Chanyeol takes them off without feeling sick. He did forget that he has shoes on, so he takes them off at the same time as his jeans. “Okay, I think I’m all good now.”

“You have another hour or so before the alcohol will be all gone,” Yixing points out. “It’s a good sign that you’re feeling better now, but you still have some alcohol in your system.” The tub is only half full, but Chanyeol doesn’t care. He takes off his underwear and climbs in.

“This is already the nicest bathtub I’ve ever been in,” Chanyeol mumbles.

“How many bathtubs have you been in?” Jongin asks. Chanyeol turns around to face Jongin and counts out on his fingers. 

“Five. Wait no, make that six,” Chanyeol says. “I’ve moved a few times and I’ve used a friends tub before.”

“That’s actually quite reasonable,” Yixing chimes in.

“Were you expecting something unreasonable?” Chanyeol counters.

“Yeah, I was expecting for you to say like thirty or some crazy number like that,” Yixing admits and Chanyeol flicks some of the bathwater at Yixing who gasps. “Did you see that? He fucking splashed me!” Jongin snorts and walks over to the tub, reaching in to also splash Yixing who screams. “I hate you!”

“I’m sure you do,” Jongin says sarcastically. Chanyeol grabs onto Jongin’s hand to get his attention.

“You two should join me in here,” Chanyeol says and Jongin shakes his head. “No, I’m serious. You’re both being so kind to me and this tub would easily fit seven people, so it’s not even that gay.” Yixing bursts into laughter, so Jongin splashes him again.

“Chanyeol has a point and if it’s not weird, then who cares. Society is not going to stop me from having a bomb ass time in a bathtub,” Yixing declares, stripping off his clothes before climbing in across from Chanyeol. Jongin sighs and looks at them.

“If you both are perfectly okay with it, then I don’t see an issue,” Jongin decides and Yixing cheers. Jongin rolls his eyes and strips down. Chanyeol’s first thought is that he’s beyond ripped and that’s kinda sexy, but he shoves that thought down because now is not the time to think gay thoughts. He just promised not to be gay.

Granted that’s very difficult when Chanyeol is a) gay b) homosexual and c) attracted to men. But it’s all okay, Chanyeol has this under control.

“Okay, I’ve got to ask,” Yixing begins. “Where on Earth did you get that many hickeys?” Chanyeol blushes and leans his head back against the edge of the tub.

“I’ve been busy,” Chanyeol replies, face turning pink. 

“Pfft, I caught him with Minseok two days ago,” Jongin says. 

“Are you for real?” Yixing asks, sitting up. 

“I’m going to interrupt Jongin for the sake of him not saying something that will embarrass me, but yeah I was making out with Minseok and Jongin kicked us out of Vibe,” Chanyeol explains, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

“This is absolutely hilarious.” Yixing mimes eating popcorn and Jongin laughs. “Okay but Minseok couldn’t have given you all of those.”

“I also make out with Jongdae and Kyungsoo…” Chanyeol’s certainly pink beyond belief at this point, but he doesn’t really want to stop talking because while he’s never kissed two guys at once, he’s certainly not opposed. Yixing at the very least has strong gay energy.

“How is it that you’ve gotten with more guys on this cruise than I have in my life?” Yixing sighs. “Currently I’ve hooked up with this one guy from my high school and Jongin, but that’s it.” Chanyeol and Jongin both make sounds of shock and look at each other.

“Yixing,” Jongin hisses. “I thought we were going to keep that on the down low.” Chanyeol, now feeling fully sober, points at Yixing, then points at Jongin. He can’t see the two of them together at all, but after repeating the pointing three more times, it makes at least a little bit more sense.

“Chanyeol is out here kissing every man on this boat and I’m curious as to what the hype is, if I’m honest.” Chanyeol stares at Yixing who stares right back.

“If you’re serious, then I don’t see why not,” Chanyeol says slowly, watching Jongin’s expression carefully. “But I don’t know if you and Jongin are exclusive and if you haven’t had that conversation yet, now is really not the time or place to have it.”

“I don’t care as long as I can kiss you too,” Jongin blurts out, refusing to make eye contact with Chanyeol.

“Well that settles it then,” Yixing decides. He drifts across the bathtub over to Jongin and Chanyeol who have migrated closer together. Yixing climbs into Chanyeol’s lap, water sloshing around before his mouth is on Chanyeol’s, arms wrapped around his neck.

Their lips slot together naturally, with Yixing taking a strong lead into the kiss, his tongue and teeth dominating while Chanyeol can only try to return the intensity. One of Chanyeol’s hands runs up Yixing’s chest and tweaks at his nipple while the other feels around for Jongin’s hand.

Chanyeol squeezes Jongin’s hand and he returns it, moving to attach himself to Yixing’s neck. Yixing is now wriggling in Chanyeol’s lap, mumbling sweet nothings to Chanyeol as they kiss, having to stop himself multiple times to let out some sound of appreciation.

Chanyeol breaks the kiss and Jongin takes over, kissing Chanyeol like he wants to savor every last moment, leaving Chanyeol breathless. Their hands stay locked together and Yixing makes a point to tell them how much he enjoys watching them together.

“You two are you pretty,” Yixing mumbles, peppering kisses all over Jongin’s neck, mixing in a few nips here and there. “Both of you look so good together.” One of Yixing’s hands strokes Chanyeol’s cheek for a brief moment before sucking on Chanyeol’s collar bones, clearly trying to add some of his own hickeys on Chanyeol. 

Jongin takes Yixing’s lead, breaking the kiss and moving his mouth to the spot right below Chanyeol’s ear, teeth grazing at his skin between kisses. Chanyeol fumbles to find Yixing’s hand for a moment, but once he finds it, he refuses to let go. 

Gasping, Chanyeol bites down on his lip. Yixing protests Chanyeol’s silencing of himself by biting down as hard as he can on Chanyeol and the sound Chanyeol lets out echos around the room. Jongin sucks lightly on Chanyeol’s ear, telling him how handsome and gorgeous he is.

All Chanyeol can do is say please and let himself be immersed in the feeling of kissing. Everything has reached this perfect point where Chanyeol feels beyond amazing, but then it hits him. They are going ashore in two days and he still has no idea how to catch Sehun.

“Wait,” Chanyeol says, Yixing and Jongin giving him space immediately.

“Is everything alright, sweetheart?” Yixing asks. “If it’s too much, we can stop right now.”

“We need a plan to catch Sehun and I know that’s so random, but it just popped in my mind and I feel so guilty if I’m enjoying myself when I could be doing more to help bring him to justice,” Chanyeol explains.

“Okay, so let’s hatch a plan,” Jongin decides.

  
  


**Day 4**

Chanyeol wakes up the next day exhausted. It’s day four of this goddamn cruise which means that Chanyeol could really use a break right about now. He turns over and is ready to climb out of bed when he sees Junmyeon standing over him. Chanyeol screams and pulls the blankets up over his head.

Last night when he got back to his room, Chanyeol made the mistake of looking in the mirror to see that half of him is completely black and blue, courtesy of Yixing, while the other half of him looks much more reasonable, there’s certainly not an insignificant amount of hickeys.

“Hey, I don’t care that you spent the night getting attacked by a bear or whatever, but Kyungsoo wasn’t the one who killed me and I don’t know who else I should try to knock overboard.”

“Are you literally asking me for who you should kill?” Chanyeol asks, not really believing what he’s hearing.

“Intially yes, but you don’t seem to really be pro-murder, so I’m here to try it your way,” Junmyeon says.

“Oh, so you’ve realized that throwing random people overboard is a bad idea?” Chanyeol mocks, really not in the mood for Junmyeon’s lack of care.

“Come on,” Junmyeon groans. “If someone kills you in cold blood for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, would you not do whatever is needed for justice? I literally only walked in and saw him with cocaine, tons of it. I could have turned around—” Chanyeol straightens up and looks at Junmyeon.

“Wait did you say cocaine?” Chanyeol asks and Junmyeon nods. “That’s literally what I’m here to investigate.”

“So you’ll help me?” Junmyeon clarifies.

“Fine, but only if you tell me everything you remember from the night you were killed,” Chanyeol decides. “And let me put a shirt on first.” Junmyeon rolls his eyes and takes a seat on Chanyeol’s bed while Chanyeol pulls on a tee shirt.

“All I remember is that I caught someone with kilos of cocaine. I was walking past some room in this hallway I believe and the door was open ajar. Out of pure curiosity I peaked in and that's when I saw all of the drugs. The person freaked when he saw me.” Junmyeon’s hand reaches up to touch his neck. “He choked me and dragged me in there, gagging me before taking me to deck nine and throwing me overboard.”

“I’m so sorry,” Chanyeol whispers, sitting down next to Junmyeon.

“Yeah, the face is blurry in my memory, but it was a man, worked on the ship and he was Asian. That’s not a lot to go off of, so I’ve been guessing and hoping for the best.” Fuck, now Chanyeol actually feels some sympathy for Junmyeon.

“Okay, so I think I may have a hunch about who did this to you,” Chanyeol begins and Junmyeon’s face lights up. “Sehun is the one spreading cocaine around on this ship, but I don’t have any evidence to pin it on him yet. I’m working with two of the crewmates to try and get to the bottom of this and we came up with a plan on how to catch Sehun.” Chanyeol explains the plan to Junmyeon who nods along as he goes.

“Great, when does it start?” Junmyeon asks.

“I’ll go and meet Sehun around six,” Chanyeol says. He glances at the clock and it's already one pm which means he doesn’t have too much time to kill, no pun intended.

“Is there any way that I can help?” As much as Chanyeol would love to have Junmyeon float through Sehun’s door and make this all a lot less difficult, there was an issue.

“We don’t technically know which room is Sehun’s because there isn’t one listed in his name, so he either used an alias, Sehun is his alias, or some other weird work around. Which means that I couldn’t just have you float into his room,” Chanyeol explains.

“That makes sense. Are you going to figure out who the room actually belongs to once you’re there?”

“Yeah, that’s what Jongin will do. I’ll tell him the room number and then he can tell me who rented out the room.” Junmyeon gives Chanyeol a hug and Chanyeol hugs back, albeit, surprised that Junmyeon is even able of giving hugs.

“Thank you so much.” 

Junmyeon and Chanyeol spend a bit more time talking, Chanyeol mainly trying to find out a bit more on Junmyeon’s personal life, hoping that it may shine a bit more light on things. Chanyeol still can’t figure out why Baekhyun won’t answer him or why Baekhyun even met with Sehun to begin with.

The only conclusions Chanyeol can come to aren’t great and generally involves Baekhyun having a drug addiction. But if he did, wouldn’t Chanyeol notice? They are best friends and have known each other for years and years now, so Chanyeol would know if there was some change… right?

Eventually Junmyeon leaves and Chanyeol is left with his thoughts and needs to style himself. He has to look hot for this to work and while in his opinion he always looks hot, Sehun might not agree with that. So low rise slacks and a loose leather jacket it is. Giving himself a once over, Chanyeol is a bit worried that it might be too much, but he decides that zipping the jacket up halfway is a good enough compromise. He throws on some makeup for a finishing touch, takes a deep breath, sneaks his fuzzy handcuffs into his pants, and heads out of the door.

Chanyeol walks into the bar just after six and purposely avoids going over to the bartender because of last night, instead looking around for Sehun. He’s sitting in the same back spot as before and Chanyeol swallows down his nerves before sitting down next to him.

“Well well well, we meet again,” Sehun says. “I see you’ve gotten quite busy since the last time we’ve met.” Why is the first thing everyone seems to comment on are his hickeys? 

“I have, but only because you ditched me,” Chanyeol replies, sounding slightly annoyed. He hopes this doesn’t turn Sehun off, and thankfully it doesn’t.

“Oh come on now, I had to deal with an important business thing. If you would like, I can make up for that now.” Sehun slides closer to Chanyeol, but Chanyeol doesn’t move.

“How can you?” Chanyeol asks, crossing his legs and looking Sehun up and down. Sehun leans over, hand cupping Chanyeol’s ear, so he’s not overheard by anyone.

“I don’t know how much of a party boy you are, but I certainly have something that could spice up your mood,” Sehun whispers. Ding ding ding! Chanyeol hopes this is what he’s looking for or else he’s going to scream, but it’s okay, all he needs is for Sehun to hand over the coke and bam, case closed.

“Then I think now is a good time to mention that I was thinking of you when I got all these marks,” Chanyeol says, uncrossing his legs and unzipping the jacket. That does exactly what he wants as he can see Sehun’s desire for him in his eyes. Damn, Chanyeol is good at this.

“Okay, do you want your fun now or later?” Sehun asks and Chanyeol assumes that fun means cocaine.

“Now please.” Chanyeol bats his eyelashes for good measure and Sehun moves to get up from the table. Chanyeol follows his lead. They walk into the bathroom together and Chanyeol is nervous that Sehun is going to want to watch him snort it when in reality Chanyeol just has a tiny evidence baggie in his pocket where he was gonna keep it.

“I trust that you have your own supplies.” Chanyeol nods eagerly even though that’s a bold faced lie because Sehun produces his own tiny bag of cocaine which he hands to Chanyeol who is careful not to touch it where Sehun did so as to mess up his fingerprints at all. “If you want any more meet me in room 1032 on floor twelve in twenty minutes.” Score! This might lead to an even bigger break if Chanyeol can catch Sehun with more than just a little bit of coke.

“I’ll see you there,” Chanyeol replies and Sehun leaves. He puts the baggie into his slightly larger evidence baggie and puts it in the inner pocket of his jacket. Chanyeol pulls out his phone and messages Jongin and Yixing about the change of plans. Yixing replies with an okay, so Chanyeol takes a quick moment to air high five himself in the mirror. This isn’t over yet, but everything is turning up Chanyeol.

Twenty minutes later, everything is very much not turning up Chanyeol. He’s standing in front of Sehun’s room, but the door is open and Sehun isn’t there. Taking a hesitant step inside, Chanyeol can see that the room was trashed. There’s only one person besides Yixing who could have done this.

“Fucking Junmyeon,” Chanyeol mutters, trying not to touch anything lest someone walk in on this mess. “I knew he couldn’t be trusted.” Because Chanyeol told Junmyeon where he was going to meet up with Sehun and Junmyeon could have easily followed Sehun.

Chanyeol texts Jongin and Yixing to let them know what happened, but leaves out the fact that it was a ghost who Chanyeol had made the mistake of trusting who broke in. No one replies immediately, so Chanyeol takes a quick look around the suite, snapping pictures of anything that might be important later. There’s a knock on the door and Chanyeol spins around, ready to explain himself, but it’s just Yixing.

“Oh you scared me,” Chanyeol says, clutching his chest. Yixing takes a quick scan around.

“Yeah, you were right this is really bad,” Yixing agrees. Chanyeol walks back out of the room. “Maybe Sehun had an accomplice who is onto us?”

“Then why not hide, y’know, all of the coke that’s all strewn on the floor?” Chanyeol counters. He knows Junmyeon did this but he doesn’t know how to find Junmyeon, especially because he’s a ghost.

“Fair point, let's at least get out of here in case someone else walks by,” Yixing suggests and Chanyeol nods. The two of them walk away from Sehun’s room and head back to the elevator. Chanyeol’s room is two floors up which means either Junmyeon was mistaken or that Sehun couldn’t have been the one to kill Junmyeon.

“Where’s Jongin? He never answered the groupchat,” Chanyeol says. “I’m honestly starting to get worried because well, you’ve seen what’s been going on this ship.”

“You’re right, let's go down to the cast room and see if he got sucked into helping anyone. It’s unlikely but I can’t think of anything else that could have happened,” Yixing replies.

They head down stairs and into the ‘Cast Members Only’ door. There’s no one inside, not even a single light on which doesn’t bode well for them. Yixing slouches against the wall and takes a heaving breath.

“What if something happened to him?” Yixing asks, voice barely above a whisper and Chanyeol wants to tell him with complete confidence that Jongin is fine, but he can’t do that because he doesn’t know.

“I’m sure he’ll be okay,” Chanyeol replies, reaching over and pulling Yixing into his arms and rubbing his back.

“I love him and I’ve never told him that before,” Yixing admits.

“You’ll be able to tell him you love him.” If Junmyeon wasn’t already dead, Chanyeol would kill him himself because this has his name written all over it. “I think you may be right about Sehun having a partner, and I’m afraid it might be Baekhyun.”

“Lets go search Baekhyun’s room. If he’s truly your friend, he won’t have anything to hide.” 

They head back up to Baekhyun’s room, which also is open slightly ajar. Fuck fuck fuck. Chanyeol bursts into the room to see Jongin tied to a chair with duct tape and Junmyeon holding Baekhyun against the wall and choking him. Some sort of ghostly strength has overcome him as the room has turned cold, Junmyeon’s skin a soft blue, and his eyes solid black.

“Junmyeon, what the fuck?” Chanyeol exclaims. “Let go of Baekhyun right now.”

“You know him?” Yixing asks, sounding just as surprised as Chanyeol. Chanyeol doesn’t have time to explain any part of Junmyeon’s ghost backstory to Yixing, so he ignores him and takes another step towards Junmyeon.

“Junmyeon, what is going on?” Chanyeol asks, raising his voice. Junmyeon snaps his head towards Chanyeol, looking extremely angry.

“I thought I would need to throw someone overboard before I could tell if they were the one who killed me, but I get one look at this punk and all of a sudden the blurry face from my memory becomes clear. He killed me,” Junmyeon explains, not letting up on Baekhyun.

“Okay, well then why is Jongin here?”

“I have no idea, I tossed Sehun overboard and saw Jongin. I was going to get him, but then Baekhyun shows up and kidnaps Jongin, so I followed them here. Baekhyun was trying to interrogate Jongin and was going to kill him,” Junmyeon explains. Chanyeol glances to Jongin who nods furiously in agreement.

“You still don’t have to kill Baekhyun though,” Chanyeol counters. “I’m a cop. That’s why I was investigating the cocaine and I have plenty of evidence now to get Baekhyun put away for a long time.” Baekhyun makes some sounds, but Junmyeon and Chanyeol ignore him. Chanyeol has discovered how he was betrayed by his best friend and now can’t bear to even look at him.

“You make it sound easy, but I know what cops are like.” Junmyeon’s rage only increases, and the room gets ten degrees colder. 

“Believe me, Junmyeon,” Chanyeol begins. “I thought Baekhyun was my best friend and now I want to see him put away just as badly as you.”

“You don’t get it! He stole my life away, so I’m taking his as revenge,” Junmyeon exclaims. Chanyeol catches a glimpse of Yixing freeing Jongin in the corner of his eye.

“But you stole away the lives of innocent people as well!” Chanyeol snaps. “Minseok, Jongdae, Kyungsoo and Sehun are people too. Sehun might be a criminal, but the other three were all innocent men who you killed without a second thought because you were so absorbed in revenge!” Chanyeol can’t play nice anymore. There’s tears streaming down his face and he’s practically screaming at Junmyeon.

Junmyeon drops Baekhyun. The room returns to a normal temperature and Junmyeon’s eyes and skin revert to normal. Chanyeol crumples to the ground and cries for a moment, the past week’s stresses finally being let out. Baekhyun tries to sneak out around Chanyeol and Junmyeon, but Yixing stops him.

“Oh right,” Chanyeol says, wiping his tears and standing up quickly. “I have these.” Chanyeol reaches into his jacket and pulls out his fuzzy handcuffs. The whole room is silent. “Oh come on, they are less suspicious than regular handcuffs.”

“It just makes you look like you like BDSM,” Yixing replies as Chanyeol handcuffs Baekhyun to his bed.

“Anyway, Byun Baekhyun, you’re under arrest for attempted murder, murder in the second degree, and trafficking. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”

“No,” Baekhyun spits. “You don’t even have jurisdiction here.”

“Actually, this ship is U.S. owned and I currently work for the FBI, so I actually do have jurisdiction here,” Chanyeol corrects. Baekhyun glares at Chanyeol and Chanyeol turns away. “Now we just need to watch him until we port tomorrow.”

  
  


**Day 5**

Chanyeol wakes up in Baekhyun’s room, him still cuffed to the bed, Junmyeon standing over Baekhyun in case he tries to move at all. Jongin and Yixing are also helping keep watch. Pulling out his phone, Chanyeol calls the local authorities to give them a heads up that he will be bringing in someone.

When they formally reach shore, Chanyeol undoes the cuff to the bed and instead cuffs Baekhyun to himself so he can’t go anywhere. Junmyeon sighs and Yixing says something to him that Chanyeol doesn’t hear.

Walking off the ship, handcuffed to the captain, and his now ex-best friend really wasn’t how Chanyeol imagined this trip ending, but it's certainly something. He doesn’t bother even bringing any of his bags off with him because technically this is just a port city, but Chanyeol can’t take it anymore on that damn boat. He’ll fucking walk home if he has to.

The local police look at Chanyeol strangely when he hands over Baekhyun to them in fuzzy handcuffs, but Chanyeol doesn’t bother explaining. He explains where the evidence is of Baekhyun’s wrongdoings and produces the cocaine from last night with an explanation that Baekhyun helped distribute it. That also brings everyone’s attention to the state of Chanyeol’s chest and neck which Chanyeol also doesn’t give any explanation for. Once that’s been settled, Chanyeol walks over to Jongin and Yixing who are holding each other in a tight hug. 

“May I ask why you two are hugging so intensely?” Chanyeol asks.

“Yixing said he loved me,” Jongin says, lifting his head out of Yixing’s chest. 

“I’m so happy for you two,” Chanyeol replies, smiling brightly.

“He also said that you were the one to encourage him last night.” Chanyeol tries to brush it off and put all the credit on Yixing, but Jongin gives Chanyeol a huge kiss in thank you.

“You guys,” Yixing interrupts.

“Shush, we’re having a moment,” Jongin says.

“We were having a moment until Chanyeol walked over,” Yixing points out. “Anyway turn around, you won’t believe it.”

“My bar for unbelievable is pretty high—” Chanyeol turns around to see Junmyeon along with Minseok, Jongdae, Kyungsoo and Sehun all standing there. “Junmyeon, you are so lucky that the others are standing with you, or I would be arresting you as well.” Chanyeol speed walks over to them, immediately grabbing Sehun and calling over an officer to have him arrested as well.

“So I’m not getting arrested?” Junmyeon clarifies.

“Technically, you didn’t commit any crimes. I couldn’t arrest you even if I wanted to,” Chanyeol replies. “But you have driven me to quit my job, so I think you owe me at the nearest bar. I have no idea where we are or what country we are even in, but alcohol is alcohol.” Junmyeon looks up at Chanyeol, gratefulness shining through his eyes.

“You could say that again,” Junmyeon mumbles.

“Yixing and Jongin you guys should come too,” Chanyeol calls. Minseok is the first one to wrap Chanyeol up in a hug.

“Junmyeon didn’t explain much, but just said to thank you.” Jongdae joins in the hug and so does Kyungsoo.

“You guys,” Chanyeol whines. “I’ll start crying again and I’ve already cried once in the past twenty four hours.”

“Lets go get that drink then,” Kyungsoo says. So the seven of them walk into the city, a newfound gratefulness for life unifying them together.

**Author's Note:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/occultclysms)   
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.qa/carrotyeol)


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